Here is the E-Learning Unit Newsletter for April 2016. We hope you find this month’s articles useful.

QMplus Hub – find out what’s coming – 24 May @ 12.00pm in David Sizer LT

This summer the E-learning Unit is upgrading QMplus Hub, the sister application which compliments QMplus. To showcase the potential of the software in your teaching and reveal the forthcoming features and enhancements, there will be a one-hour information session with talks from regular Hub users, a presentation of new features and a discussion. If you are an established user, a new user, a dabbler or just someone who would like to find out more, please come along – and bring your lunch with you. Register via Eventbrite.

LA MAGA: Iberian and Latin American language e-magazine

Mar Encinas and the ERASMUS+ postgraduate students from Iberian and Latin American Studies (ILAS) at QM have created the first edition of their departmental magazine LA MAGA, published in Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese. This magazine has been made available using Microsoft Sway (available to all QMUL members). Students have had an enthusiastic response to the magazine and the stimulus to see their texts published has contributed to improve their writing and reading skills in the target languages. LA MAGA has encouraged collaboration and allowed students and staff to voice both their opinions and their achievements in a joint effort to create a platform to communicate and share the mutual experience of teaching and learning at QMUL.

 QMplus Upgrade – come and see how QMplus is evolving

As in previous years, our annual summer event will be showcasing some of the exciting new features and changes coming to QMplus in July. All staff are invited to the ELU’s event on Tuesday the 21st of June at 14:00 in the David Sizer Lecture Theatre on the Mile End campus. You will also have opportunity to talk to others engaged in e-learning, while enjoying a drink and canapés. Register via Eventbrite.

Is distance education the future?

Each year the University of London’s Centre for Distance Education hosts ‘Research and Innovation in Distance Education’. Last month saw the 10th anniversary of the event, providing an opportunity for reflection on the state of distance and fully online education, and the role of Higher Education in an increasingly crowded market. How do we decide when online is better than on-campus, and is there a future for ‘distance education’ at QMUL? Read more here.

Case Study: Quizzes for continuous assessment in languages

Continuous assessment is a key component of language teaching and quizzes act as an effective tool to measure students´ progress throughout the academic year. Mar Encinas-Puente and her colleague Ester Pou, both in the Department of Iberian and Latin American Studies have been developing their use of quizzes over the past two years. Mar has developed 15 grammar quizzes and Ester has created 10 listening quizzes. These quizzes have freed up class time and have allowed first and second year cohorts to review contents and assess their language skills. Read more about how Mar and Ester achieved this and what benefits it has brought to their students.

Top topics on our helpdesk this month

• Turnitin – how do I know if the service is unavailable and how do I delete submissions from the Turnitin database
• Q-Review – why can’t my students see their recordings?
• My QMplus area is taking a long time to load. What can I do?

These are three of the common topics that our support team have been dealing with this month.  Read our post  to find out more about the solutions to these issues.

Staff development opportunities

• Drop-in to the E-Learning Studio between 1 – 2pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays to chat to a member of the E-Learning Unit about any issues you are having. Ideal for small problems that can be cleared up quickly face to face.
• Schedule a one hour meeting with a member of the team for a more in-depth discussion about any aspect of using technology in teaching
• Getting started with online teaching – workshop on Wednesday the 4th of May at 11:00AM
  James Stewart, our online learning support adviser, is running a session for those interested in finding out about teaching fully online courses. Please contact James directly on james.stewart@qmul.ac.uk if you are interested in attending.

Workshops: tell us what you need…

Being able to offer staff the type of workshop they’d like at a time that is convenient is a challenge for us in the E-Learning Unit. We have been working with departments, institutes and teams to deliver bespoke sessions tailored to their specific needs. These have been popular and we continue to do this but we’ve also decided to try something slightly different for May and June.

Instead of simply scheduling a number of workshops and hoping people sign up, we’d like to hear from you about what you’d be interested in attending over the next couple of months. We’ve set up a form with a number of topics to choose from, simply tick the topics you’d be interested in attending. If we get enough interest in a particular workshop, we will do our best to schedule it at a time that is convenient for those who’d like to attend. There’s also space to tell us about any topic you’d be interested in that isn’t on the list.

Please fill in the form and let us know what you’d like us to deliver.